His men showed real courage to withstand enormous pressure in a cauldron of an atmosphere at Edgeley Park and, with the game in the balance at half time, managed to snatch a couple of goals themselves in the second half, with Ismail Yakubu leading his back line magnificently to repel a late hosts' onslaught.

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“Let’s be honest, on another day we could have been finished in the first 10 minutes,” admitted Hill, who should have been laid up at home rather than in charge.

“Brandon Hall made two or three great saves after they started on the front foot and had us under pressure.

“They scored and then Brandon kept us in it at 1-0, at a time when, if the second one goes in, it puts them in a very strong position and we would then have been really chasing the game.

Gozie Ugwu scores his second goal (Image: David Holmes)

“We got an equaliser from a corner, from Joey Jones, which was very similar to last week at Boreham Wood.

Hanging on

“We then scored from a very, very good move, with four great passes and Gozie finished and we were 2-1 up and it gave us a little bit to hang on to there.”

Joey Jones appeared to be tripped when Danny Lloyd went on to set up a Stockport equaliser and Hill said: “It was then more about which defence would be the better in the second half would win the game.

“I think that’s what it was about.

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"They get the ball forward early, we had our work cut out there’s no doubt about that. They have useful players, they have an experienced manager and had more than 4,000 fans. It’s a tough order to get any kind of result.

“We had to go and get a goal in the second half and when we did, they had a lot of possession but we always fancied we could run their back line. They lacked pace at the back, no disrespect to them.

'No stopping Gozie'

“And you could see the difference they had between playing against forwards in the National League North and playing against forwards in the National League, a division higher, and they found it hard to stop Gozie.

“They threw everything at us from there and I thought our back line dug deep.

“We had to deal with headers and change our formation. That’s all credit to them [Stockport], because they worked us hard.

“We made one or two subs, and the final goal is a nail in their coffin.”

Now the second round beckons. “I’m pleased to say we are through,” he said. “We knew it was going to be tricky as they fancied their chances, there’s no secret about that. Not in a naughty way, but they were confident, and we got a result.

“We’ve come here and scored four goals so you have to give us credit because we exposed them as much as they were looking to expose us.

"We had great support. And the win is great for the club. We needed it and everybody at the club can look forward to the draw on Monday (November 7) evening.”